Johannes Schiess (medical doctor)

Johannes Schiess (born May 26, 1837 in Herisau , † February 24, 1910 in Alexandria ) was a Swiss doctor and promoter of archeology in Alexandria.

Johannes Schiess

life and work

Schiess was the son of the manufacturer Hans Konrad and Anna Katharina, née Frischknecht. After a year-long apprenticeship as a blacksmith, he was a seminarist at the Alumneum in Basel for two years . From 1862 to 1866 Schiess studied medicine at the University of Basel . He continued his studies in Bern , Paris and Berlin . In 1868 Schiess was a medical doctor in Crete , where he met the writer Marie Espérance von Schwartz . From Ismail Pascha , the Khedive of Egypt , Schiess received the invitation for the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal in November 1869.

This invitation led Schiess to work and live as a division doctor at the military and civil hospital in Alexandria. Schiess was president of the medical association there and a sponsor of cholera and tuberculosis research. In 1872 Schiess married the doctor's daughter Hélène Seraphine Honorine Tricon. He later married Elisabetha Tschinderle in 1907. In his house, Schiess accommodated and supported archaeologists such as Georg Theodor Schreiber , Heinrich Schliemann and the anthropologist Georg Schweinfurth .

In 1879 he was promoted to Bey and in 1906 to Pascha . As a member of the Municipal Authority and President of the Museum Committee of the Greco-Roman Museum Alexandria , which was inaugurated on September 26, 1895 , Schiess was committed to the urban development, archeology and anthropology of Alexandria. He was supported financially by Ernst von Sieglin . Schiess was awarded a gold medal in December 1900 for his services.

Web links

• Peter Witschi: Schiess, Johannes In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Life and work of Johannes Schiess